Collection of the best infographics & data visualization on the Web!

Online Gaming Infographic – A Graphic, Visual History

So, I have to admit I geeked out a little when I found out what this infographic was about. I am not admitting to any large amounts of online gaming, or my vintage Atari buttons and t-shirts, or my SGI Dogfight-induced Carpal Tunnel in ’89, or anything like that, I just think it’s really interesting to learn about history. History is important. Right? I guess I digress…

Online Gaming Timeline

This infographic is great-looking. The header is just perfect, with its old-school feel, and the timeline set forth is impressive because of the sheer amount of research that went into it. It lists the online games created since 1973 starting with Empire, the first networked multiplayer game, and ending in 2011 with the long-anticipated Duke Nukem Forever, which was so long-anticipated that it could never live up to fans expectations, and is thought largely to suck.

Online Gaming Sales

After the game information, including the year, the name of the game, the creator of the game, and a tidbit of information about each, there is a section on game sales. It’s broken out by system, and the pie charts look like little Pac-Men. The yellow part of the Pac-Man is the sum of the world’s sales in millions, and the red piece is America’s piece of the pie. The grand total for the whole world in game sales is $3431.34 million dollars. Is your mind blown yet?

The next section covers the top 10 games sales by publisher in millions – also showing the sum of America and the sum of the world. Nintendo is the clear winner, with Sony a distant second. The section right after that deals with the top 10 best-selling games of all time, broken into an “all games” category and an “online multiplayer only” category. For “all games,” the big winner is Wii Sports, followed by Super Mario Brothers. The best selling online multiplayer game? Mario Kart, of course.

The Wrap-Up on Online Gaming

There are two more little sections – one with the total sales in units. Check out the number. Mind-boggling. The last bit is a big old word cloud shaped like Pac-Man with names of games that were world-changers. It’s fun to hunt for your favorite and see how big it is in comparison to others.

Design: A+

The mix of classic video game graphics and the layout of the infographic work perfectly, and I honestly can’t think of any criticism for the look of the graphic.

Information: A+

Everything you ever needed to know about online gaming, all wrapped up in a very big and fun to read infographic.